Wednesday, September 01, 2010

Don't save money...

...by cheaping out on your gunsmith.

Saw a Bushhamster "Y-Comp" muzzle brake launched into the berm yesterday, due to an indifferent job of pinning the thing on. You'd think that the shooter would have noticed the sudden departure of several ounces of metal at a high rate of speed from the front end of his gat, but he says he didn't feel anything.

It wasn't threaded or silver soldered; just affixed over a smooth turned-down shank on the end of the barrel with a single blind pin and some dried crusty residue that may have been library paste for all the good it did in keeping the thing attached.

He needed to re-zero the weapon. Also, it's a lot more pleasant to shoot on the same relay as that guy without that godawful racket-making excrescence on the end of his carbine.

Try being next to a Garand with a comp that resembled the one you see on .50BMG's! Forgot my ears once, when we started a string shooting prone (I was switching back and forth between custom plugs and muffs). My ears rang for days.s.s.s...

Hate to be the one to say it, but some of the dumbest crap I've heard of, and I hear a lot being in the business, comes from "gunsmiths". They know far too much to read instructions, for one thing. -- Lyle

IIRC, some of the .gov/mil documents refer to the "flash hider" on the m16A2 as a brake. This is due to it being directional. Blows up and to both sides, but not down. By definition, that is a muzzle brake. Wonder how much down force it generates?

It may very well have been library paste. Cornstarch is in the long list of materials used as a 'glue' and/or thread locker (threads would have been convenient here, granted) before the plastics revolution.

That Bushy AK-74 style thingy works; I have one on my XM-15E2S. Friendly to those next to you it is not, though.Also, if you ever get to Gunsite for 223, and you have a brake on your carbine, don't forget to stick it outside the box when you run the Scrambler. Those of you who have been know what I mean.